Red Caps shot dead by mob were left exposed in ‘Iraqi powder keg’

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There was only a handful of soldiers to train several thousand Iraqi police - too few for safety, their commander has admitted

THE commander in charge of six Royal Military Police soldiers who were killed by an Iraqi mob admitted yesterday that they lacked the manpower to carry out their duties in an area described as a powder keg.

Colonel Thomas Beckett, former commanding officer of 1 Para Battle Group in Iraq, told an inquest that only a handful of Red Caps had been deployed to train several thousand Iraqi police in the months after the invasion.

The six Red Caps of 156 Provost Company Royal Military Police died in a hail of bullets in June 2003 after becoming caught up in